Comparison of the Effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy on Negative Meta-Emotion and Hostile Attribution in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) on negative meta-emotion and hostile attribution in patients with MS.

Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental design with pretest, posttest, and follow-up assessments and included two intervention groups and one control group. A total of 45 patients with MS were recruited from the Tehran MS Association and related treatment settings and were randomly assigned to three groups: SFBT, CFT, and control (15 participants in each group). The two intervention groups each received eight weekly 90-minute sessions. Data were collected using the Meta-Emotion Scale and the Hostile Attribution Questionnaire and were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis in SPSS-26.

Results: The findings showed that both SFBT and CFT significantly reduced negative meta-emotion and hostile attribution compared with the control group. For negative meta-emotion, significant effects were found for group, time, and the time × group interaction. A similar pattern was observed for hostile attribution. Pairwise comparisons indicated that both intervention groups differed significantly from the control group at posttest and follow-up, whereas the difference between SFBT and CFT was not statistically significant on either variable.

Conclusion: Both SFBT and CFT were effective in reducing negative meta-emotion and hostile attribution in patients with MS, and these effects were maintained at follow-up. These findings suggest that both interventions may be useful for improving emotional self-appraisal and interpersonal cognitive processing in this population.